OUR LORD AND HIS CHURCHES
By
F. E. MARSH
Christ
had to bring against the Church in
Christ
not only brings the solemn charge, but He also directs the Church in
Christ
gives the solemn warning that if repentance is lacking, He will have to come
in discipline to us; and that the character of the discipline will be
that of our candlestick of testimony will be removed out of its place.
Historically, this came to pass in the history of the Church in
There comes to my mind many instances where the Lord’s servants have
had their lives cut short, and their testimony put out, and the only and seeming
explanation was that there had been a declension in the life of devotion to the
Lord. I
recall one of the many instances of a prominent Christian worker who was taken
away at the comparatively early age of thirty-three, and right in the midst of
an unprecedented and useful life for Christ. He was mightily used of God
for a time in following up the work of D. L. Moody, yet suddenly he was taken
ill, and his career was abruptly ended. It was not known, and, as far
as I know, it was not known, that he was living in secret sin, but the few who
were in the know could see that there was apparently the act of the Lord in
discipline.
In
Christ’s message to the Church in Pergamos, He is revealed as the One who has
the sharp sword with two edges. As in the previous case, He commends the
Church for holding fast to His name, and for not denying the faith, but He also
has to reprimand the Church because they tolerated those in their midst who
held the doctrine of Balaam, and He says, unless they repent and deal with these He will come and fight against
them with "the sword of His mouth."
The one thing in the message to the Church in Pergamos is that Christ will
not tolerate error and evil in the life of the Church, nor will He allow a
mixture of sin and holiness. It is a solemn fact that there is
sometimes great professed spirituality, we find it coupled with terrible
sensuality. Here again we could record many instances of spiritual
alliances in the commencement which have developed into unholy alliances of
sin. There comes to my mind an instance of a Christian man and woman,
who, in a time of great sorrow, prayed much together, and yet, as John Wesley
once said, the ditch of error lives very near the road of truth, so these two in their fellowship of prayer,
through unwatchfulness fell into the awful ditch of an affinity in the flesh.
Christ ever fights against such impurity, and will surely deal in discipline, as He did in the case of the brother who fell into sin in the Church in
Corinth, and of whom the apostle said, "Deliver
such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1
Cor. 5: 5).
In
His message to the Church in Thyartira, as in the other instances, Christ
commends the things that called for His approbation [commendation], and of which He says, "That which ye have, hold
fast till I come." That which they had is enumerated in Revelation 2: 19. They had the love of
devotion, the ministry of service, the faith of trust, the steadfastness of
patience, and yet there was a
possibility of being contaminated by the prophetess Jezebel, who was
disseminating a doctrine which again was aimed to lead astray from the path of
virtue and pure worship. To this Church Christ bid them to hold fast
the good things and expel the bad.
The word "hold fast" has a soul of
meaning within it. Its inner sense is to be strong, to maintain. It
is more than holding on. It means to master and to rule over things.
Remembering this, it gives added force to what follows when Christ uses the
conjunction "and," and says, "And he that overcometh and keepeth My works unto the end,
to him will I give authority (R.V.) over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron ... and I will give him the morning star"
(Rev. 2: 26, 28).
When
Peter said to Christ, he had renounced everything to follow Him, Christ said to
him, "Verily I say unto you, that ye which have
followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man
shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Christ’s
reproof to the Church in Sardis was that their works were "not perfect"; that they had "a name to live, but were dead";*
hence, He charges them to be watchful, but, if they are not, He declares:
"I will come upon you as a thief, and thou shalt
not know what hour I shall come upon thee" (Rev. 3: 3). There is another place in the Book of the
Revelation where Christ says He may come as a thief, and that is in chapter 16, verse 15: "Behold, I come as a thief, blesseth is he that watcheth, and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."
Joseph
Rabinowitz, in talking with A. J. Gordon, opened the New Testament and read to
him: "Behold, I come as a thief," etc.
"The admonition of the Lord," he
said, "affected me very deeply when I first read
it, for I knew at a glance its meaning. All night long the watchmen in
the temple kept on duty. The overseer of the temple was always likely to
appear at unexpected hours to see if these were faithfully attending to their
charges. If he came upon any watchman who had fallen asleep, he quietly
drew his loose garments from him and bore them away as a witness against him when
he should awake. My Lord is liable to
come at any moment.¹
He may come in the second watch, or the
third watch, therefore I must be always ready, lest coming suddenly, He find me
sleeping."
The
solemnity of these words of Christ, "I will come
on you as a thief," is of startling moment. The preposition
"Epi," rendered "on" and "upon," signifies
being over an object with distinct direction and purpose towards it.
As the thief comes to take something away from another, so Christ will take
away the defiled garments ² which will be evidence against us of
unwatchfulness. Surely this should be an
incentive for us to watch with holy diligence and unceasing attention, lest
when the Lord comes He finds us lacking in what He desires.
When
Christ says, "Behold I come quickly," it means that when He starts there will be
no delay, and as we do not know when that "quickly"
will operate, His word of warning is: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." Failure
to hold fast His word in life and service will mean a loss of the victor’s
crown. The possibility of losing the crown - [That is, failing to be "considered worthy" - by Christ -
"of taking part in that age" - the kingdom age, the age to follow this age, the
millennium - "and in the resurrection out
of the dead" Luke 20: 35. (Greek)] - should be an
incentive for us to do all in our power to retain it. The word
for crown is "Stephanos," and means a victor’s crown. The victory is
essential to the crown. The
Lord has made no provision for us to be defeated. He has made every
provision for us to be victorious. Frank White, in an address at a
Pastors’ College Conference, held in the Metropolitan Tabernacle during the
ministry of C. H. Spurgeon, said, "We need to be
saved from the untheological devotion, and from an undevotional
theology." In other words, a devotion that is not based
upon the [doctrines
taught in the] Word of God is sure to be
wrong, and on the other hand, a so-called truth which does not lead to a life
of consecration is also false. We need a correspondence to God’s Word
and our experience, as Bengel finely says, "Apply
thyself wholly to the Word, and apply the Word wholly
to thyself."
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FOOTNOTES
*See "The Personal Indwelling of The
Holy Spirit" by G. H. Lang on this website.
1. "My Lord is liable to come at any
moment."
It
would be better, (in my opinion) to say: ‘The rapture of watchful saints may
come at any moment,’ (Luke 21: 36; Rev. 3: 10): the Lord Himself will not come
until the end of the Great Tribulation, (Matt.
24: 29, 30; Mark 13: 24-26; Luke 21: 27-31.): and if any should object
by saying: ‘All the above texts refer to the Jews,’
they should read 2 Thess. 2: 1, 8.
There can be no question regarding who are being addressed here! - "the church"
(verse 1).
2.
The Defiled Garments.
The
regenerate believer should be able to see at a glance that "the garments" (Rev.
16: 15) in this context, do not refer to the imputed
righteousness of Christ Jesus. Every regenerate
person is presently robed in that by the grace of God, which is
the impeccable (sinless) righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In
my opinion, one of the best commentaries on this section of Scripture is
written by G. H. Lang:-
"For
the forgiveness of sins, and for life as a forgiven man in the camp, neither
perfection of form, nor washing at the gate of the tabernacle, nor special
clothing, were demanded; but for access to God and for
priestly service all these were as indispensable as the atoning blood. Imputed
righteousness settles completely and for ever the judical standing of
the believer as justified before the law of God; but practical
righteousness must be added in order to secure many of the mighty privileges
which become possible to the justified. Let him that hath ears hear
this also, for loss and shame must be
his at last who has been content to remain deformed and imperfect in moral
state, or is found to have neglected the washing, and so be unfit to wear the
noble clothing required for access to the throne of glory. Such neglect of present grace not only causes
the loss of heart access to God, as the careless believer surely knows, but
will assure [unless repentance
is found] the
forfeiture of much that grace would have gained in the future.
Here
lies the weight of the warning which our Lord announces from heaven as to be
specially applicable when His coming draws near:
"Behold, I come as a thief. [This message
is set in the midst of the gathering of the hosts of Antichrist for the battle
of Har Magedon, and so indicates the period when the coming will be]. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments,
lest he walk naked and they see his shame"
(Rev. 16; 15). Therefore "garments" may be lost. If the reference is
to the imputed righteousness, then justification [by faith] may be forfeited, and the once [eternally] saved be
afterwards [eternally] lost. But let those who rightly reject this, inquire honestly what it does properly mean as
to the eternally justified. And let them face what is involved in the
loss of one’s garments.
In
the temple of old the guards were placed at midnight at their posts. The
captain of the temple, at any hour he chose, went round with a posse of men
unannounced, and if a guard was caught asleep at his post, he was stripped of
his clothes, which were burned, and he was left to go forth in his shame.
The shame of his nakedness was the
outward counterpart of the deeper shame that he had slept when on duty. Not in that dishonoured state dare he enter
the house of God and sing and serve. And it would be long ere
the disgrace of that night would fade from memory, his own
and others. My soul, keep awake through this short night of duty while
the Lord is away! Thou knowest not in
which watch of the night He will come, and it were dreadful to be left
unclothed ... "
The
call to REPENT is directed at the backslider. That is, at all of us who do
not love and work for the Lord, as we once did.
1. Repentance can bring restoration, and
renewed fellowship with the Lord:
"Repent and do the things
you did at first; ... Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will ... fight
against them". "... remember,
therefore, what you have received and heard;
obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I
will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you." *
[* This 'coming' can also be in judgment, as was
the case in the lives of Ananias and Sapphira, (Acts 5: 1-10).]
2. Repentance can bring us spiritual understanding, sight,
and practical righteousness - [that is, the
"fine linen" to cover our shame (Rev. 19:
8)]:
"You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a
thing. But YOU DO NOT REALIZE that you are wretched,
pitiful, poor, blind and NAKED."
3. Repentance can transform one who has been overcome into an
overcomer:
"SO BE EARNEST AND REPENT."
"If
anyone hears my voice," says the:"Amen the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God’s
creation," (Rev. 3: 14): "I will go in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will
give the right" - [how strange it is that, for the most part, Christians
assume they all have the "right," on the basis of bare faith alone,] - " TO SIT WITH ME ON MY THRONE, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit SAYS TO
THE CHURCHES" Rev. 3: 14-22.
"
... There is a better kingdom coming, the
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